Optical fiber connectors are used in a variety of optical telecommunications applications and optical device applications to establish optical communication between optical-based apparatus, components etc. Optical fiber connectors are configured to operably support one or more optical fibers at the respective ends of the optical fibers.
One way an optical fiber is supported in an optical fiber connector is through the use of a ferrule, which is a sleeve that includes a bore sized to accommodate the optical fiber (or multiple bores in the event of multiple optical fibers). The ferrule includes a front end with surface (e.g., a substantially planar surface) at which the end face of the optical fiber resides.
One process for operably arranging the optical fiber in the ferrule includes stripping off a portion of the non-glass (e.g., polymer) coating to expose the underlying glass fiber section. This bare fiber section is then inserted into the ferrule bore from the back end of the ferrule so that a portion of the bare fiber section extends beyond the front end of the ferrule. The bare fiber section is then cleaved and the exposed end face is then polished to define a polished end face that is free of defects and substantially co-planar with (e.g., within +/−200 nanometers of) the surface of the ferrule front end.
A problem with this approach is that cleaving the optical fiber after it is inserted into the ferrule is typically accomplished a relatively large distance away from the ferrule front end, e.g., much greater than 100 microns. One reason for this large distance is to avoid damaging the surface at the ferrule front end during the cleaving process. Such a large distance is undesirable because it requires that the polishing step reduce a substantial amount of bare optical fiber, and there is also the risk that such a large portion of bare optical fiber section can break off during polishing. It would therefore be preferable to be able to cleave the fiber at a much closer distance to the ferrule front end without the risk of damaging the front-end surface of the ferrule so that the subsequent polishing step can be performed more quickly and efficiently.